The USS Carondelet had a revolutionary ship design and was the most active of all the Union’s Civil War river ironclads. From Fort Henry through the siege of Vicksburg and from the Red River campaign through the Battle of Nashville, the gunboat was prominent in war legend and literature. This history draws on the letters of Ensign Scott Dyer Jordan and Rear Adm. Henry Walke’s memoirs.

Prolific author Myron J. Smith, Jr., is emeritus library director and professor at Tusculum University, Greeneville, Tennessee.

Myron J. Smith, Jr.
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 288
Bibliographic Info: 89 photos, 8 maps, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2010
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4524-0
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5609-3
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      viii
Foreword by W. Douglas Bell      1
Preface      3

1. Planning the Western Ironclads      5
2. The Building of the Carondelet and the City Series Gunboats      20
3. Life Aboard the Carondelet      39
4. Fort Henry      50
5. Fort Donelson      70
6. Island No. 10      88
7. Fort Pillow and Memphis      111
8. The Arkansas      122
9. Transition, January–March 1863      144
10. Vicksburg      151
11. From Vicksburg to Red River      175
12. Nashville      195
13. War’s End      214

Chapter Notes      227
Bibliography      255
Index      273

• “Lively reading…the most thorough study of a Union ironclad that plied the Mississippi, Tennessee, Cumberland, and Red Rivers…highly recommended”—Choice
• “If it sailed on the brown water of America’s Western rives during the Civil War and flew the Stars and Stripes of the Union Navy, Myron Smith more than likely knows about it”—America’s Civil War
• “Anyone who has an interest in the western theater of the Civil War would do well to add this volume to their bookshelf. It is an excellent history of one of the most successful ironclads in the Union Navy”—Nautical Research Journal
• “Smith has carved out a niche for himself as the author of books treating the ships of the U.S. Navy on Western waters during the Civil War”—North & South
• “Worthwhile”—United States Naval Institute
• “Thoroughly researched…clearly written…a must-buy”—Civil War News
• “wow!”—The Lone Star